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Special permits slow purchase and revamp of vacant Fitchburg properties

By Alana Melanson, amelanson@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
10/28/2012 08:57:47 AM EDT

FITCHBURG -- It's been a rough road for Chelmsford native Joseph Green to purchase the Walnut Street home he's set to close on later this week.

Green, 48, was forced to go to the City Council for a special permit in order to turn the three-family house at 20 Walnut St. into a single family home for himself, a process that has ended up taking months.

Green first submitted his letter of intent to the building department back in July, which was then denied, because the building is a non-conforming structure to the zoning code for the area. Because it had been abandoned for more than two years, its former use was no longer grandfathered in, and therefore subject to the current zoning code.

As more and more people become interested in rehabilitating the city's abandoned buildings, special permit requests to the City Council seem to be becoming more commonplace. When someone wants to purchase and work on a property that has been abandoned for more than two years, the special permit process is triggered, whether the potential owner desires to restore its original use or to change it to suit their needs.

Green, who is moving to Fitchburg because he is going through a divorce, found the home to be both the least expensive at only $25,000 and the most desirable in terms of the space and the view.

Although it's a little bigger than he really needs or was hoping for, it was too much of a bargain for him to turn down.

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"It's a huge house, and it'll just be me until I find someone to share it with me," Green said, noting that his three sons will come to visit him.

Green paid a $300 fee in submitting the special permit paperwork. Because of the council's summer break, Green had to wait to get on the agenda. Once the item was on the council's Sept. 4 agenda, it then had to vote to send it to a public hearing held Oct. 2.

After a lengthy discussion among councilors -- most of whom had never had to deal with this process before -- Green was granted his permit. After a 20-day waiting period (to allow abutters a chance to appeal), the permit -- which the purchase of the house was hinging on -- was finally ready Tuesday.

Despite the delays, Green says all of the city employees he's had to work with thus far -- the city clerk, the building commissioner, folks from the housing division, city councilors -- have been very helpful. He just wishes he'd had some sort of inkling -- perhaps a sheet outlining the process -- before having to go through it, to know what he was in for.

"They could dumb it down a little," he said, only half kidding. "It would be helpful if they had a little printout describing 'This is what you're going to have to go through,' the typical process, more or less what you would be subjected to. I'm in construction, but I'm not used to this administrative piece."

At the very next full council meeting following the one where Green was granted his permit, there was another special permit hearing, this time for Fitchburg native Thongyoun Bounsouk, who was looking to convert a Rollstone Street three-family house into two-family with storage space on the first floor, which was also granted.

Both meetings had councilors scratching their heads, wondering what had brought these instances before them, and for some, if they were truly the right ones to have the authority to decide.

Council President Jody Joseph said special permit requests have been so rare that he's only seen about four or five in his 10 years on the council. He believes the reason they're becoming more commonplace now is largely due to the great amount of foreclosures the city has seen in recent years. As people become more interested in purchasing these properties, it's the council's duty to make sure potential buyers have the city's best interest in mind, he said.

Councilor Marcus DiNatale sees this interest as a positive for the city, especially among folks like Green and Bounsouk, who will be turning dilapidated buildings into respectable living environments.

"We have an issue coming up now because we have individuals who are serious about investing in the city, and making use of these abandoned buildings," DiNatale said. "I wholeheartedly support that. ... It's better than what's happening there right now, which is nothing."

"They're putting properties back on the tax rolls and getting them rehabilitated," Joseph said. "In both of the cases we've seen, they will be living in the properties they're rehabilitating. To me, that's an investment in the neighborhood. We've got to have people who are going to invest in our neighborhoods if they want to invest in Fitchburg."

"It's a very good thing. These people are making an investment. They're coming into Fitchburg, taking properties that have been abandoned and turning them around," said Councilor Stephan Hay. "We should be encouraging that and supportive."

Councilor David Clark said he'd like to see matters like this go before the Zoning Board of Appeals, as it has more experience in this realm than the council does, and usually has a lengthy list of requirements to which permit seekers must adhere to ensure properties fall in line with allowed uses.

According to City Solicitor John Barrett, special permits of this nature came under the purview of City Council in a 2001 revision to the city code. To make the Zoning Board of Appeals -- or the Planning Board, as he feels would be more appropriate -- the authority to grant these special permits, there would have to be further changes made to the city code or zoning, he said. The council could refer such situations to these boards for comment, Barrett said, but doing so would necessitate continuing a hearing past its slated date to allow the boards time to do so -- which would further lengthen the timeline for applicants.

Clark feels that allowing these permits without the strict conditions that the Zoning Board of Appeals would require leaves the council taking a leap of faith that these folks will do what they say they will.

"Right now, it's a chance worth taking, but it is something I'm really going to keep eye on," Clark said. "I'm very much at a 'we'll see' point."

Green says they don't have to worry about him, because he's a former code enforcement officer. He used to be a plumbing, gas and electrical inspector for Concord, Bedford and Carlisle, but, ironically, gave it up to find "a regular job" to appease his wife, he says. Green hopes to one day go back to doing inspection work, hopefully for the city, he said.

In the meantime, the master plumber has plenty of work to do at his new home, which will officially be his on Friday.

Realtor Brenda Cormier, of RE/MAX Property Promotions in Leominster, says she showed the property to seven or eight potential buyers in the last couple of years, but they were all scared away after one look.

"It was too much work for all of them," she said. "The building is solid, it just needs a lot of TLC, and he's willing to do it."

Despite the house being boarded up, thieves were able to break in and steal all of the copper piping, destroying some walls and bathroom fixtures. Green says that nearly everything will be an easy fix for him; it's just going to take a lot of time and effort.

"For me, as a plumber, it's not a big deal. For someone else, it would be," he said. "I've got a leg up on a lot of these people."

He's also going to put his carpentry skills to use when it comes to remodeling his new home. Green has designs to redo the bathroom entirely, create a new kitchen, put in hardwood floors, restore the inside stairs linking the first and second floors and take down some walls to give him fewer, larger rooms. Green also wants to install a sliding glass door on the back of the house and create a foyer. In the front, he plans to remove the porch and turn the basement into a two-car garage to give himself off-street parking.

Green is also thinking about adding a glass gazebo with seating to the front of the second floor, where there is a beautiful view looking out over the city. For now, that's a little out of his price range.

While the property may be a bit of a mess right now, "I'm going to bring it back around again," Green said. "It's got a lot of potential."

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